High School Drinking Drops

The proportion of high school students in Massachusetts who drink
alcoholic beverages fell over 13% in the two years between 2001
and 2003, according to the Massachusetts Youth Risk Behavior Survey.
Heavy drinking (sometimes called ‘binge drinking”) dropped
almost one-fifth in the same two-year period.

These latest findings are based on an anonymous survey of 3,624
students from 50 randomly selected public high schools in the state.

Some educators were “shocked” because they thought
drinking among teens was a rapidly growing epidemic. Indeed, that’s
the picture commonly painted by alcohol activists and subsequently
presented by the media. However, these findings of declines are
consistent with well-documented nation-wide trends in underage drinking.

Detailed information on high school drinking over time is found
in the Youthful Drinking section of Alcohol
Abuse.